kio kreations » Cake Boss Vs. Ace of Cakes Cake Boss Vs. Ace of Cakes Published on January 11th, 2010 Prev Many people will say you can’t beat the original–and in the case of cake decorating shows–I am going to have to be one of those people! Ace of Cakes BEATS Cake Boss hands down! It is obvious that TLC has been copying some of the Food Network’s most popular shows including Food Network Cake Challenges and of course, Ace of Cakes. TLC’s answer to Food Network Cake Challenges is “ Ultimate Cake-off ” which even features some of the same cake artists that have already dominated the Food Network Challenges. And then there is TLC’s Cake Boss , which is a blatant attempt to compete with Ace of Cakes . And in my opinion…it doesn’t come close. Let’s talk about Cake Boss… It’s campy. It’s all about Buddy Valastro, his family-owned Carlo’s Bakery and his totally “New Jersey”, Italian family. He has even uttered a “fugetaboutit” or two in some of the episodes. Talk about serving up a stereotype. Ugh. Annoying.

And the “pranks” they play on each other seem so unnatural and totally scripted. Speaking of SCRIPTED, who let’s a bride in the backroom of a bakery (hello health code and safety violations) so she can “decorate/ruin” a cake with the icing bags while Buddy wanders out of the room for a few moments. It is so fake! And in the tiny chance there is any realness to it, its obviously scripted drama. All of the yelling at each other–it’s just irritating! Their work is pretty good, sometimes even great–but they have yet to top Ace of Cake’s best work. I also HATE how they only feature the male decorators/family members. While Buddy makes short mention of the young ladies that make all the cool sculptural stuff, they never get camera time or their names on the opening sequence. The only women really featured on Cake Boss are Buddy’s loud and obnoxious sisters–who are always yelling at him, complaining and playing pranks on the guys. Oh, please! I would say the good things about Carlo’s Bakery is it has been there for generations now so their baked goods must be awesome and its also open to the public (unlike Charm City Cakes).

I have also seen Buddy on Food Network Challenges (pre-Cake Boss) and he did good work on there–but he didn’t seem as much as a “character” as he is now. I just wonder how much is for show and how much is legit. It all seems so fake and exaggerated…they really should work on that! As for Ace of Cakes… Ace of Cakes is all about ART and the people who create it. At first the show was more about Duff, but the last few seasons have allowed for the rest of the talented staff to shine (both on and off the camera). Duff Goldman is owner of Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, Maryland and he and his staff are totally talented artsy-types. As an artsy-fartsy type myself, I totally appreciate them. Their banter seems genuine. Their drama seems real and not exaggerated. They don’t yell, they laugh. They allow each decorator to shine and follow them as they work on their creations. I hope Charm City Cakes continues to grow and flourish. I really enjoy watching Ace of Cakes and hope they keep the episodes coming! It is fun to see people create cool things. I also like that I see the other designers on Challenges now too.

That is fun. And Mary Alice is awesome. (Hopefully she reads this and smiles). So Why Do I Care About Cake Decorating? Few people know this, but I actually used to do cake decorating as a youth (and had passed all of the Wilton Method classes by age 12). I actually showed cakes in the 4-H Fair and even got a reserve champion ribbon on the first tiered cake I attempted! I even used fondant on it! Nowadays, I seldom decorate, let alone bake. The last things I made were for my husband’s 30th birthday last year. Here they are: Now I focus more on making cute cupcake flags and signage for dessert and candy displays. Like these ones below that I sell on ETSY : So, in closing, I hope you enjoyed the fun Rockem’ Sockem’ Robots fight I crafted between Buddy and Duff. As you can see, Duff won! ****UDPATE**** WE ARE NO LONGER TAKING COMMENTS ON THIS POST.

Ace of Cakes had its final season and Duff moved on to some new endeavors like coming up with Blue Bunny Ice Cream Flavors , he has his own cake decorating product line available at Michael’s and other stores, he continues to be a personality for The Food Network and he opened Duff’s CakeMix in LA. When the Cake Boss has that many National endorsement deals and projects that are not just TLC shows we can talk more. Furthermore, Duff is self-made and hired a talented (non-relative staff)…Buddy walked into a successful local bakery dynasty that his family built. His growth, (somewhat like Duff’s) is based purely on the fact that he has a popular TV Show…only unlike Duff’s, Buddy’s is filled with useless, scripted family drama, New Jersey Italian stereotypes (and accents to boot) and trips to Disney World. TLC exploits this further by having Buddy’s wife appear on “Say Yes to the Dress” with his opinionated sisters…so please, comment elsewhere if you wish to support this show…this post is 2 years old and I am done talking about it.

Reality show takes the cake with personality-packed bakery - USATODAY.com Reality show takes the cake with personality-packed bakery Updated By Eileen Blass, USA TODAY Buddy Valastro decorates a bright, spotted birthday cake at Carlo's Bake Shop in Hoboken, N.J. FOR THE 'ACE OF CAKES,' BAKING IS PART SCIENCE, ALL FUN Enlarge Food Network Making a cake that looks like a Viking ship or an Army helicopter "taxes every part of your brain," says Duff Goldman, 34, above, host of the Food Network's Ace of Cakes, now in its seventh season. It airs on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. He and his staff at Charm City Cakes in Baltimore have whipped up both for the show. "We have to know engineering, electronics, in some cases metallurgy," he says. "You have to be able to draw and think in 3-D. You have to understand how humidity is going to affect your product.

You have to know how physics and gravity are going to affect your cake." Goldman says people like watching cake shows because making these confections is such "a mystery to so many people, and it captures their imagination." Here's Goldman's take on: � The best cake he has made on the show. "It's coming up. We made a cake of a monster called Squig from a video game called Warhammer for a video-game convention. This thing was about the size of large sheepdog. It was gigantic. It was a humongous cake balanced on two legs." � The worst disaster on the show. "We make a 3-foot replica of a Scottish castle. One of my decorators was delivering the cake. ... He rang the doorbell with his elbow, and the door opened out onto him, and it hit the cake and the whole thing fell on the ground. This cake took four days to make. We rebuilt the cake in about an hour and half. I had all my employees working on it. We got it done, and it was better than the first one. It was the biggest disaster, and the best comeback." � Cost of the cakes. "Our cakes start at $1,000. That's the minimum order.

It's rare that one of our cakes is more than $2,500. We make 12 to 15 cakes a week, and they are super fresh." � The dynamics of his staff. "People are really having that much fun. They are laughing and goofing around and dressing up in weird costumes. We are all artists, musicians, poets. Kitchens are crazy, crazy places. Some people who watch the show say they want to work there. They want to hang out with those guys. We probably get a thousand re sume TV Listings powered by Zap2it By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY HOBOKEN, N.J.  As Buddy Valastro, the star of TLC's Cake Boss, steps into his crowded bakery here, someone shouts: "That's the Cake Boss!" There's cheering, clapping, cameras flashing. Fans cluster around him for photos and autographs. "It's like the Jonas Brothers ," says his sister Grace Faugno. "I'm not even kidding you." GALLERY: Photos of 'Cake Boss' and his family-staff in action Not bad for a 32-year-old fourth-generation baker who just a few months ago was relatively unknown.

Cake Boss, currently airing in its first season, has become one of the hottest food shows on cable and is part of a trend in cake-making reality programs that includes the Food Network 's Ace of Cakes and a new TLC show, Ultimate Cake Off Cake Boss chronicles the escapades of Valastro and his colorful Italian family with their New Jersey accents and attitude — including his four sisters, three brothers-in-law, his mother, an aunt, his wife and a few cousins — while they go about their business each week making 50 to 60 wedding cakes, 300 to 600 birthday cakes, 2,000 cupcakes, thousands of pastries (cannoli, lobster tails, biscotti, éclairs) and several complex, intricately designed cakes. So far this season, they've whipped up a 400-pound cake to look like a 20-ton extinct mammal, an elaborate toy scene with huge toy soldiers, and a large wedding cake with real white doves encased in a cage between two tiers of the cake. (Eleven previous episodes are airing Sunday from 1 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. ET/PT.

Two new episodes air at 10 p.m. Aug. 10 and 17.) Valastro says he thought this show would appeal to viewers. "I knew it was going to be funny because of the cast of characters. My family, my business is a fun place. Everybody knows a family like ours — a big Italian family. I'm goofy. I yell. I scream," he says. "What's unique about our business is it's still an old-fashioned bakery that you used to go to with your mom. And at the end of the day, we make some amazing stuff." Today, the chaos in the 7,000-square-foot bakery is barely in check. Valastro's sisters are racing around the main level of the shop selling pastries and cakes to a long line of customers. Employees are whisking confections up and down a narrow stairway. The TV crew is filming Valastro as he gently makes handcrafted tulips out of sugary gum paste for his next big cake. He's cracking jokes with a brother-in-law and bantering with his sisters as they breeze in and out of the decorating room. Part of the appeal of the show is Valastro's outraged reactions to some of the antics of his family members.

In one episode, when one of his cousins can't find a place to buy real white doves for a special wedding cake, the cousin and another employee try to capture some pigeons at a nearby park. Valastro calls them on his cellphone and bellows: "Where are you, man? Are you kidding me? Are you two dummies at the park catching pigeons? Go back to the bakery. What the hell is wrong with you?" In another episode, two employees drop a five-tier sweet 16 birthday cake (for 200 people, $3,000) down a flight of stairs. Valastro's wails: "What did yous (he pronounces it USE) do?" Then he marches off and barks orders at his staff to get started on making another one. On yet another show, a dissatisfied bride defaces her finished wedding cake by squirting it with colored icing. This was reality, not an incident staged by the television crew, Valastro says. "At first, I thought I was being duped by the production company," he says, "but she did it on her own. She told me she thought it would be funny. I said, 'Are you kidding?

You ruined your fricking wedding cake.' " None of this surprises Valastro. "You know how many crazy personalities I meet?" You never know what's going to happen next at the bakery, says Mauro Castano, one of Valastro's brothers-in-law. "If it was set up, at least we'd know what to expect." Production has started on next season's shows, and Valastro hopes there will be many more to come. "We didn't even scratch the surface and get into people's personalities." His biggest problem right now is he's working six days a week, 12 to 18 hours a day. "I don't get to spend as much time as I'd like with my beautiful wife, Lisa, and my three beautiful children" — Sofia, 6, Buddy, 4, and Marco, 2. Valastro gives credit for his success to his beloved father, who owned the bakery before him. Its name, Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop, comes from the original owner, who sold it to Valastro's dad. "My father came from Sicily at 13 and didn't have shoes on. He died a success.

I'm a picture of what America is based on." His father started bringing him into the bakery when he was 11 after he was caught playing with matches in the woods with some friends. He has had no formal culinary school training. "Just the school of hard knocks." Over the years, he has made cakes for national magazines, competitions and other TV shows. One of his proudest accomplishments this season is the 400-pound cake shaped like an indricotherium, an early relative of modern rhinos, that he made for a museum in New York. He sculpted it out of dozens of round pound cakes, covered them with rolled fondant (a thin sugar dough) and modeling chocolate, then carefully sculpted the "skin" to look realistic. The cake was big enough to feed 500 people and cost $8,000. It's the intricate details that make the cakes expensive, he says. His ability to make handcrafted lifelike tulips, roses and other edible delicacies qualifies him as a sugar artist, but he considers himself a baker first. "A lot of people don't know much about baking," he says. "They either wing it or use box or bag mixes.

I do test batch after test batch like a mad scientist." These massive works of cake art taste as good as they look, he says. "By refrigerating them and covering them in fondant, we seal in the moisture. The cake and the cream infuse each other. It's like a marinade. It never dries out." TV industry observers say the show has a lot going for it. "The cakes all have personality, and they are larger than life because the family in this show is larger than life with personality to match," says Shari Anne Brill of media buyer Carat. "That's what makes it engaging. It's the dynamics of the people on staff — the drama, the comedy, the action and the accents." Fans of the bakery agree. "It's fast, it's exciting, really creative," says Leland Blankenship of Candler, N.C. Tammy Bratton of Denton, Md., says, "You can tell they love each other even though they fuss at each other. It's a really good wholesome show that the family can watch together." Valastro takes a break several times today to talk to people who have come to the bakery.

He says he learned from his father that it's your interactions with other people that matter most in life. "Sure, I have a hit TV show, but it's the little things you do every day, day in and day out, to touch other people that make you special." The most rewarding part of the show is its appeal to families, Valastro says. "If I can bring families together for half an hour each week, that's golden. That's great." Posted E-mail | Print | To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones . For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com . Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com . Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more .

Top Chef: Just Desserts, Cake Boss, and Ace of Cakes: Why Cake TV Doesn’t Work - The Daily Beast Michaelangelo Matos 10.05.10 10:38 PM ET Maybe the most surprising thing so far about Top Chef: Just Desserts is just how shameless it is. The enterprise it’s part of isn’t above pulling at the “Fight! Fight! Fight!” strings, of course—that’s reality TV’s remit—but not since Season 2 of Top Chef proper, when four contestants ganged up on fellow competitor Marcel Vigneron and attempted to shave his head, has this franchise come so close to freak-show territory. Even if we didn’t get to suffer along with the rest of the chefs as Seth Caro—who, judging from the season’s first three episodes, falls into screaming fits at the drop of a cookie—there’s enough internal sniping (the mid-contest sniping between Morgan Wilson and Malika Ameen last week, for starters) to keep Real Housewives fans happy—happier, maybe, than those of us who like these series best when they emphasize the food.

Still, if Just Desserts is the least of the three Top Chef shows thus far ( Top Chef: Masters is a reliable fill-in series; Top Chef All Stars is set for December), it’s at the top of its class in its own division: Cake TV, all those damn shows about cupcakes, pastries, sculpted-with-fondant edible sculptures, wacky chefs, buttercream, will-it-fall-apart? deliveries in rickety trucks. En masse, Cake TV may well be the most banal TV genre going—and I say this as an avid fan of both House Hunters and How It’s Made. To start with, pastry is not generally an exciting trade. You might go out to dinner at night hoping for a culinary adventure, but when you go buy your bagel or muffin or scone or Danish or whatever in the morning, you want it the same every time. That’s what baking is. Pastry, like few of foodservice’s major areas, from waiting tables to working the counter to food prep to line cooking to menu planning to mad-scientist molecular gastronomy (the subject of the endearingly geeky Future Food on Planet Green), is inherently limited in dramatic possibility.

Anthony Bourdain’s 2000 memoir Kitchen Confidential introduced American pop culture to the chef as pirate, swashbuckling his way through endless hours and uncertain working conditions and coming out the other side with great food and a certain grimy sex appeal, based on the ability to improvise when necessary—often the mark of a great chef. The mark of a pastry chef is not to improvise. They go to work at 4 a.m.; they measure everything precisely; they time the ovens carefully. No improvisation, very little inherent sex appeal—where’s the TV in that? (That may be key to Just Desserts’ relative success in the field: it’s not just about pastry, but chocolate and other kinds of sweets, which all have their own rules, some more advantageous dramatically than others.) You can, of course, blame TV for starting it—namely, Sex and the City, whose spotlighting of the West Village’s buttercream Mecca, the Magnolia Bakery, has inspired a wholesale cupcaking of America. One of the keys to Andy Samberg’s instantly iconic Saturday Night Live short, “Lazy Sunday,” was its prominent mention of cupcakes. What had been a staple of the 3 a.m.

7-Eleven run was suddenly designer. Naturally, there has been a big surge of TV shows about cakes, in or out of cups. The godfather of these is Food Network’s Ace of Cakes, which premiered four years ago and for some reason is still going. Ace documents the day-to-day business of Charm City Cakes, a Baltimore bakery specializing in sculptural work—scale replicas of volcanoes, ballparks, and cigar boxes, among other things, decorated in frosting. The finished products are cute—cartoony and vivid, with imaginative detail work—but watching them be made is less enchanting than you might expect. There are some moments, as well, when the chefs’ improvisational skills come into play (also true of other Cake TV shows), but the show is so lax everything flattens out. Most everyone at Charm City mumbles, from the boss, a totally chill brah named Duff Goldman, on down; many of the bakers’ sentences don’t end so much as trail off. (The exception is Mary Alice, the office manager—who doesn’t work on cakes, which is when much of the action takes place.) The talking-head interviews are a chore.

The staff’s occasional attempts to drum up bits of business for the camera (look, Duff plays bad punk rock in the basement sometimes!) are as hokey as Webster. Ace of Cakes has no dramatic tension whatsoever; it’s the kind of show people hate on principle, like a bum roommate. Duff and friends are not the only ones who mug for the camera. The worst offender by far is Buddy Valastro of TLC’s Cake Boss, a bug-eyed Italian-American baker (he runs Carlo’s Bakery in Hoboken, New Jersey) who manages to look at the camera all the time even when he’s not actually looking at the camera. He runs around yelping orders to everyone in front and back of the house; it’s cute for about five minutes, tops. (There’s a Tumblr dedicated to photos of the line in front of Buddy’s bakery, taken from across the street, called I Need a Little Fondant Over Here ). Needless to say, there is now a spin-off , in which Buddy judges a baking competition.

Less obvious but more insidious is the WE Network’s The Cupcake Girls, about best friends Heather White and Lori Joyce, who run a string of cupcake shops in Vancouver and try to play their show for laughs, badly. In one episode, they hire a quality-control expert, who soon reveals that Heather and Lori have never made cupcakes, as they squirm trying to get out of attending a 4 a.m. mandatory baking meeting. (“I don’t think it’s a big deal,” one of them pouts into the camera.) On the show, they come across as the SNL “Delicious Dish” women from hell, clueless and indulgent. That goes for the show, too, particularly when Joyce, after an employee on maternity leave comes by to show her colleagues her new baby, brings the camera along to an in vitro fertilization treatment. I don’t know what the hell this has to do with cupcakes, either. I don’t know what the hell this has to do with cupcakes. I don’t know what Seth Caro’s multiple freak-outs have to do with them, either, and when he’s ranting I have to avert my eyes from the TV.

(During the shots of Caro’s fellow contestants averting their eyes from him, naturally.) For his sake, I hope he gets eliminated sooner rather than later. The other contestants are primed to keep squabbling without him, anyway. There’s little of the cozy insularity of most Cake TV on Just Desserts; it goes for (or the contestants provide) the opposite pole. It’s sensational, which for reality-competition TV is par and for Cake TV is major. Duff Goldman shop makes customers 'Ace of Cakes' Duff Goldman shop makes customers 'Ace of Cakes' MICHELE KAYAL Share 1 / 4 This image taken on Wednesday, June 20, 2012, shows a two-tier cake that is fondant covered and made with fondant cut-out flowers, to serve as inspiration for customers creating a make-your-own cake at Duff's Cakemix, in Los Angeles. The new venture is owned by chef, Duff Goldman, next door to his bakery, Charm City Cakes West.

(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) This image taken on Wednesday, June 20, 2012, shows a two-tier cake that is fondant covered and made with fondant cut-out flowers, to serve as inspiration for customers creating a make-your-own cake at Duff's Cakemix, in Los Angeles. The new venture is owned by chef, Duff Goldman, next door to his bakery, Charm City Cakes West. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) You can build a bear, bottle your own wine, paint pottery — and now, decorate your own television-worthy cake. Celebrity baker Duff Goldman, the Food Network's "Ace of Cakes," on Thursday opens Duff's Cakemix, a make-your-own-cake shop next to his Los Angeles bakery Charm City Cakes West, where novices and experts alike can dabble in fondant, cake tattoos and airbrushed designs. "With the pottery places you've got this plate sitting around for a while," he says.

"With this, you make a cake, you take it home, you invite a bunch of friends and you eat it." Aspiring cake decorators can do as much or as little as they like, Goldman says. After selecting a pre-made cake or cupcakes — in chocolate, vanilla, marble, carrot, red velvet and a daily special — customers can cover it in fondant or buttercream or have one of the store's employees do it. Decorations will include everything from sprinkles, sugar flowers and jellybeans to Goldman's signature cake tattoos. Customers will get a tray of paintbrushes, piping tips, fondant tools and other gadgets. At a glass-enclosed airbrush station, customers can learn to graffiti their cakes. "I want people to not only have fun, but to learn something, to see they can do something amazing and fun and creative and be successful at it," Goldman says. "At the end of their two hours I want them to look at their cake and run up to a random stranger and say 'Dude, look what I made!'" In a twist, Goldman will have some competition from TV's "Cake Boss" Buddy Valastro, who is introducing a new line of cakes at bakeries and grocery stores this summer.

Unlike Goldman's line, Valastro's cakes will arrive fully decorated, including the "Badda Bloom" — a two-layer cake, one chocolate and one vanilla, with a layer of fudge and covered in bright green frosting with pink and purple flowers. Goldman says his plans include roughly two dozen stores nationwide within the first two years, and later, a store in Tokyo. The first, in Los Angeles, will have 10 tables with 40 seats in the decorating area. Goldman says he expects a large part of the clientele to be children and teenagers as well as bridal showers and bachelorette parties. A small cafe will offer — what else? — cake and coffee for parents sitting out the mayhem. "This is something that's different and fun and cool," Goldman says. "For the cost of movie tickets and popcorn and a soda you can hang out and do a cake with your kids." Prices will start at $36 for a cake and all the decorating accessories, or $18 for four cupcakes. In addition, Duff's Cakemix will also offer fully decorated cakes for purchase, Goldman says, and to-go kits that contain everything a person needs to decorate at home.

Among Goldman's partners is Los Angeles restaurateur Richard Drapkin. The store will also have a Duff's Cakemix food truck that caters parties. Goldman is also developing a line of branded products that could include unique cake tattoos, he says. "Ace of Cakes" airs on the Food Network Wednesdays at 10 and 10:30am EDT. ___ Duff Goldman - Public Speaking & Appearances - Speakerpedia, Discover & Follow a World of Compelling Voices Star of "Ace of Cakes" on the Food Network, Owner of Charm City Cakes Chef Duff Goldman started working for acclaimed Baltimore Chef Cindy Wolf while attending the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. After graduating with degrees in History and Philosophy, Duff left Baltimore to study pastries at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, California. While in Napa, Duff was a stagiere at the French Laundry, working under acclaimed pastry Chef Steven Durfee. Following graduation from the CIA, Duff left Northern California to become Executive Pastry Chef of the Vail Cascade Hotel and Resort in the mountains of Vail, Colorado.

While in Colorado he worked with such notable chefs as Jessie Llapitan, now Executive Chef of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, and Chef Jason Rogers, late of Olives in Aspen, and now at the Borgota of Atlantic City. Duff left Colorado to cook and bake bread for Todd English's Olives back in Washington, D.C., and worked under Executive Chef Steve Mannino. Duff's entrepreneurial spirit took him back to Baltimore in 2000, where he finally realized his dream and opened Charm City Cakes in his apartment. He wasn't there very long; as word-of-mouth, the media, and even the health department all began to take an interest, and he soon found himself in a real bakery of his very own. Increased coverage in the press, and a growing clients list helped propel Duff into an even bigger location: an old church he retrofitted into his current modern bakery - and the Charm City Cakes as we know it was firmly established. As word about his unusual and daring cakes got out, Duff hired staff with more artistic experience than the typical pastry chef, like painters, architects and sculptors.

His out-of-the-ordinary team is known for producing highly creative cakes that range from Star Wars characters and vehicles, to a replica of the Stanley Cup, to a working life-size motorcycle, and a Hogwarts Castle for Warner Bros. Following several appearances on its cake competition Challenge series, in 2006, Food Network tapped Chef Duff and his fellow cake baking artists at Charm City Cakes to star in Ace of Cakes. After six years and ten seasons, the show is popular in over 40 countries worldwide. In 2011 the show saw its United Kingdom premiere draw record numbers for Food Network's latest overseas venture: Food Network UK. In addition to his work on Ace of Cakes, Duff also stars in the Food Network series, The Best Thing I Ever Ate, has been featured in episodes of Iron Chef America, The Next Food Network Star, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Drives, Chefs vs. City, Cupcake Wars, Chopped, and has just completed several guest-starring roles in both TV and film. Today, Duff's work has also been featured on Oprah, Good Morning America, Fox News, CNN, The Today Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and more.

Chef Duff has also made his first foray into the publishing world with the New York Times Bestseller, Ace of Cakes: Inside the World of Charm City Cakes from HarperCollins/William Morrow. Duff's newest show, Sugar High, premiered on the Food Network in 2011 and chronicles Duff's cross-country trek to capture the sweet secrets and tasty techniques that keep the cookies from crumbling in the top bakeries around the nation. Duff visits a bevy of sweet spots ranging from diners and curbside snow-cone machines to food carts and boutique bakeries, getting a full view of what it takes to sweeten up any soiree. This sugary search leaves mouths watering as Duff discovers the country's best baked goods. Duff partnered with the Youtube channel, Hungry, in July 2012 where viewers can tune into his adventures with food challenges, food pranks, cake tips, edible art and more. In 2012, Cakemix opened its doors in Los Angeles. The one-stop cake decorating shop allows visitors to decorate their own cakes.

In addition to owning and operating Charm City Cakes and Charm City Cakes West, Duff is also a sculptor, artist, and musician - he plays bass the an indie instrumental band, Sand Ox, has an affinity for wearing his signature hockey jerseys, and is an all-around good guy with the cleanest hands in town. In 2011, Duff was nominated for two James Beard Foundation awards for both Best TV Food Personality/Host and Best Television Program. Click Here to register and get pricing on booking Duff Goldman for your next event! Speakerpedia Network Duff Goldman, and related speakers, have recently spoken at events for Speakerpedia Network Members.

Daymond John spoke for an event in Chicago, IL for $35000 Shannon Miller spoke for an event in Longview, Texas for $10000 Story Musgrave spoke for an event in Las Vegas, NV for $10000 Story Musgrave spoke for an event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin for $7500 Joan Rivers spoke for an event in Houston, TX for $37500 Videos added about 4 years ago Tags 1000+ images about Cake Masters on Pinterest | Cake boss buddy, Israel and Cakes My Little Pony Rainbow Cake (not my cake, but I love the sprinkles!) See More Recipes: Cream Cheese Pound Cake and Rose Red Velvet Cake with White Chocolate Frosting | The Seattle Times Recipes: Cream Cheese Pound Cake and Rose Red Velvet Cake with White Chocolate Frosting Originally published February 23, 2010 at 7:00 pm Updated February 23, 2010 at 8:01 pm Cake is all the rage these days takes to the TV shows that feature fancy cakes.

Share story Judy Hevrdejs We are a nation up to our eyeballs in buttercream icing, ganache, fondant and the cakes that support them. Layer cakes. Cupcakes. Bundt cakes. It is a passionate love affair. Fantastically decorated sweets fill bakery shelves, TV screens and cookbooks. To put it simply: We’ve got a serious case of cake love, and we’ve got it bad. “We are a cake-centric society,” said Rose Levy Beranbaum, America’s reigning queen of cakes. “We always have been, and it has only gotten more so. I think it’s because of the ‘Iron Chef’ syndrome.” Most Read Stories Unlimited Digital Access. $1 for 4 weeks. The symptoms? Constant viewing of sweet-TV. Shows such as TLC’s “Cake Boss,” with Buddy Valastro’s family at Carlo’s bakery in Hoboken, N.J. Or maybe Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes,” with Duff Goldman and his team in Baltimore. Not enough for you? Click on TLC’s “Ultimate Cake Off” or We TV’s “Amazing Wedding Cakes.” And if you can wait until later this year, Bravo will add “Top Chef: Just Desserts” to the mix.

“People don’t know how to do it themselves, so they really love seeing somebody else doing it,” said Beranbaum, author of “Rose’s Heavenly Cakes” and “The Cake Bible,” in its 44th printing. “Cake Boss” Valastro would agree. “You know, it’s kind of like watching that show on the Discovery Channel,” he said. “I get sucked into that because it’s, ‘Ahh, how do they make Reese’s Pieces’ And you see it.” Such sweet-TV fuels our appetite for cakes. So do hundreds of bakeries and cupcakeries. The final swirl atop this multilayered phenomenon? Dozens of cake cookbooks, from “Cakewalk,” by New York sugar artist Margaret Braun on through “The Whimsical Bakehouse,” by mother-daughter bakers Kaye and Liv Hansen from Westchester, N.Y. Coming in April: “Simply Spectacular Cakes,” by London-based Peggy Porschen, who’s done sweets for Elton John and Madonna as well as the centerpiece cake for Stella McCartney’s wedding. How over the top can cakes get? “The cake I’m most proud of I did in the shape of a NASCAR car,” Valastro said.

“And it was actual size. That was a monumental task. It took like three days.” Cake “is the fanciest, most visual aspect of food,” Beranbaum said. “When food starts getting too fussy, you don’t want to eat it. But when it comes to cake, that’s different. It’s a symbol of celebration.” Something you might do for loved ones. One other reason to bake a cake? “Decorate with your kids at home,” said Valastro, a father of three. “Hey listen, if it comes out lousy, you can still eat it. And the kids’ll never forget that time.” Resources From decorating tools to classes to how-to online videos, here are a few helpful Web sites: “Ace of Cakes”: Food Network’s Duff Goldman’s team creates a cake “Viking ship,” wedding cakes, offering inspiration. foodnetwork .com/ace-of-cakes/index.html “Cake Boss”: Videos of old-school piping (TLC-TV’s Buddy Valastro goes swag crazy) and decorative roses, etc. tlc.discovery.com/tv/cake-boss/cake-boss.html Rose Levy Beranbaum: Cake cookbook whiz’s blog plus instructional videos on lacquer glaze and more.

realbakingwithrose.com Wilton Industries: The “Decorating 101” page is especially instructive. Want to mix mauve, plum or lavender tinted frosting? Check out the color chart. wilton.com This is Cream cheese Pound Cake is adapted from “Cake Boss” Buddy Valastro’s basic pound cake. The cake can be decorated as you like or served simply with citrus-glazed fruit. Cream Cheese Pound Cake 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature 2 cups sugar, divided 2 1/3 cups cake flour, sifted 2 teaspoons vanilla 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar Citrus-glazed fruit, see recipe, optional Whipped cream, optional 1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in 1 3/4 cups of the sugar until smooth; beat in flour and vanilla on low speed until batter has a dry, crumbly appearance. Add yolks, one at a time, beating each until incorporated. Clean beaters. 2.

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar and remaining 1/4 cup of the sugar in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form. Gently fold 1/3 of the egg whites into batter; repeat twice. Pour batter into buttered and floured 10-inch Bundt pan. Bake until tester inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 50-60 minutes. Cool cake in pan 15 minutes. Invert onto cake rack; cool completely. Decorate as desired, or serve with citrus-glazed fruit and whipped cream. 3.To make Citrus-glazed fruit: Mix 1 cup each sugar and water plus grated zest of one lemon in a small saucepan; cook over low heat until sugar dissolves and mixture thickens slightly. Cut enough fresh fruit (strawberries, blueberries, kiwi fruit, for example) to make about 3 cups. Place fruit in bowl; pour glaze over fruit. Sweetheart of a Cake Remember when a fancy cake was decorated with pastel-tinted royal icing roses, a piped edge and a carefully written missive that began with “Happy …”? No more.

So much sweet TV and its sugar wizards, cake artists and those working in the Technicolor-bright, sugar-and-butter world of decorated cakes have changed that. It doesn’t mean there’s no room in the kitchen for the rest of us who want to try our hand at sugar art. And why not? Especially if you agree with Duff Goldman who writes in “Ace of Cakes,” a book about his Charm City Cakes and Food Network show, that “cake is a physical manifestation of joy.” To get you started, some decorating tips from the pros: “Get inspired from other people’s work.” — Buddy Valastro, TLC’s “Cake Boss” “When designing a cake, simplicity is always best. One idea or element is always better than trying to make two or three ideas work on one cake.” — Goldman, in “Ace of Cakes” Buy a turntable. “Anybody who wants to be serious about cake decorating needs a turntable.” — Valastro “Make sure you let the cake cool — even put it in a freezer, so it chills a little bit. It’s easier for you to handle. A half-hour in the freezer will give it a little stability.” — Valastro.

“The trick to keeping crumbs out of your icing is to glide your spatula over the icing, never allowing the spatula to touch the cake surface or to pull already spread icing from the cake surface.” — From “Cake Decorating 101” at wilton.com “Many factors can affect your icing consistency, such as humidity, temperature, ingredients and equipment. You may need to try using different icing consistencies when decorating.” — From “Cake Decorating 101” at wilton.com “Dip hands in ice water if, while piping, it (the icing) gets too soft.” — Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of “Rose’s Heavenly Cakes” “If you can’t make the sides (of a cake) smooth, encrust it with nuts.” — Beranbaum “There’s nothing wrong with buying pre-made royal icing flowers.” — Beranbaum — — — Adapted from “Rose’s Heavenly Cakes,” by Rose Levy Beranbaum. For a more distinct chocolate flavor and a much darker red, you can use up to 1/4 cup cocoa, sifted before measuring, but you must decrease the flour by the same amount.

Rose Red Velvet Cake with White Chocolate Frosting Makes 10 servings 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons egg whites, room temperature 2 tablespoons red food color 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla 2 cups sifted cake (or 1 3/4 cups all-purpose) flour 1 cup superfine sugar 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup canola or safflower oil, room temperature 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/2 cup buttermilk White chocolate frosting, see recipe 1. Grease bottom of one 9-inch heart-shaped or round cake pan; top with parchment paper cut to fit. Grease paper; dust with flour. Set oven rack in the lower third of the oven; heat the oven to 350 degrees. Whisk egg whites, food color and vanilla in a medium bowl until lightly combined. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa and salt in a medium bowl. 2. Mix oil and butter in bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, 1 minute. Add flour mixture and buttermilk; mix on low until dry ingredients are moistened. Raise speed to medium; beat 1 1/2 minutes.

Lower speed to medium-low; beat in egg mixture in two parts, 30 seconds each. Pour batter into the prepared pan; smooth the surface evenly. 3. Bake until cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean and cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center, 25-35 minutes. Let cake cool in the pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Carefully invert the cake onto a greased wire rack. Reinvert the cake so that the top side is up. Cool completely. Frost top with white chocolate frosting. 4. To make white chocolate frosting: Microwave 3 ounces white chocolate (containing cocoa butter) in a bowl on high heat, stirring often, until almost completely melted, about 30 seconds. Remove from microwave; stir until fully melted. Cool until no longer warm to the touch but still fluid. Beat 4 ounces softened cream cheese, 2 tablespoons softened unsalted butter and 1/2 tablespoon creme fraiche or sour cream until smooth. Add the white chocolate; beat until smooth. Beat in 1/8 teaspoon almond extract until smooth.

Judy Hevrdejs Duff Goldman Buttercream Icing Recipe - Duff Goldman Net Worth Duff Goldman Buttercream Icing Recipe Read more... Duff Goldman Duff Goldman Net Worth is $5 Million. Duff Goldman is a baker and cook with a net worth of $5 million. Duff Goldman accumulated his net worth as star of the Ace of Cakes on the Food Network and other television cooking shows, television sitcoms as we. Jeffrey Adam "Duff" Goldman ... Duff Goldman Net Worth is $5 Million. Duff Goldman Net Worth is $5 Million. Duff Goldman is a baker and cook with a net worth of $5 million. Duff Goldman accumulated his net worth as star of the Ace of Cakes on the Food Network and other television cooking shows, television sitcoms as we Jeffrey Adam "Duff" Goldman is a pastry chef and television personality. He is the executive chef of the Baltimore-based Charm City Cakes shop which is featured in the Food Network reality television show Ace of Cakes. His work and talent have also been featured on the Food Network Challenge, Iron Chef America, Oprah, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Goldman was born in Detroit, Michigan into a Jewish family, and moved shortly thereafter to Missouri. Goldman's nickname Duff came about when he was a baby. His toddler brother was unable to pronounce the name and kept saying Duffy. When he was four, his mother caught him in her kitchen wielding a meat cleaver and watching food personality Chef Tell. After the divorce of his parents when he was ten, Goldman spent time living in both in Northern Virginia and in the town of Sandwich on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In 1992, Goldman attended McLean High School in McLean, Virginia where he played on the Highlanders ice... Buddy Valastro | TV Screener Posted July 30th, 2009 by Kim All the tube news that’s fit to surf … – Oscar winner Diane Keaton is set to star in a new HBO comedy inspired by Gloria Steinem. Keaton will play a feminist icon who tries to spark a rejuvenation of the feminist movement by starting a porn magazine for women. The series (which would make an interesting primetime block with HBO’s Hung) is being written by Buffy the Vampire Slayer producer and writer Marti Noxon.

– When Jon & Kate Plus 8 returns with new episodes on TLC on Aug. 3, the action will not include the separated couple’s extracurricular love interests. – The Emmy folks are considering pre-recording a handful of categories’ winners and inserting them into the live Neil Patrick Harris-hosted telecast on Sept. 20. Organizers are calling the idea “time-shifting” those awards’ presentations … really, Emmy people? If those award categories (which includes the drama writing category for which Mad Men nabbed four of five nominations) aren’t deemed important enough to air live, why air them at all during the main Emmy telecast? – TLC has renewed Cake Boss with New Jersey baker Buddy Valastro for a second season, which will air sometime in the fall. The current debut season wraps on Aug. 17. – Life co-star Donal Logue will star in FX’s new dramedy Terriers , written by The Shield‘s Shawn Ryan. The new series will feature Logue as a P.I. who, partnered with his best friend, isn’t exactly the most mature private eye on the block.

– Ugly Betty/Harper’s Island/Popular alum Christopher Gorham has been cast in USA’s new CIA thriller Covert Affairs. The show will star Gorham as a blind special ops agent who helps train a newbie CIA agent played by Piper Perabo. – The Hills – sans Lauren Conrad and with new star Kristin Cavallari – kicks off its new season on Sept. 29 on MTV. – Must-see-TV clip of the day: Anderson Cooper, subbing for Reeg on Live with Regis and Kelly, asking The Bachelorette‘s Jillian Harris the question we all really want the answer to . – While promoting her new TV Land show How’d You Get So Rich?, which premieres Aug. 5, Joan Rivers made it clear she’s no fan of Jay Leno . – The big news coming out of the annual Television Critics’ Association gathering about Starz’ 2010 drama Spartacus: Lots of nudity. Lots and lots of nudity .

– And tonight in primetime: – Another one bites the dust as a contestant is Michael’s on the hunt for a client list on Burn Notice (9PM, USA) – Sean Paul sings and JabbaWockeeZ dances as two more are cut on So You Think You Can Dance (9PM, Fox) – She’s Got the Look wraps its second season and chooses a winner on TV Land (9PM) – What kind of 3BR house will $700,000 buy you in Los Angeles? Find out on House Hunters (9PM, HGTV) – Duff cakes a precariously balanced Cirque du Soleil cake on Ace of Cakes (10PM, Food Network) – Jill and Hank tussle over a patient on Royal Pains (10PM, USA) – It’s season two – and the return of NeNe! – for The Real Housewives of Atlanta (10PM, Bravo) – Is Audrey dunzo on LA Ink (10PM, TLC)? – MTV has unaired footage from season one of 16 and Pregnant (10PM) – Penn & Teller: Bullshit!

(10PM, Showtime) examines the claims about organic food – And it’s beauty queen vs. gossiper vs. salon owner on WE’s Most Popular (10PM) Posted July 29th, 2009 by Kim All the tube news that’s fit to surf … – Here’s official proof that anyone can get a reality series these days: Tobey Maguire‘s mom – yes, Spider-Man’s mama – is working on a reality series that will focus on her attempts with her other son, 15-year-old Weston, to remain normal in the shadow of her famous son’s Hollywood life. Next up: the guy who waves at you when you drive by his house while he’s mowing the lawn gets his own reality show. – No surprise here: Both Burn Notice and Royal Pains have been renewed on USA Network. The shows’ popularity led to USA ending July as the most-watched cable network on the tube. – Prison Break star Robert Knepper and his evil Samuel will be a regular on the fourth season of Heroes, and The Hollywood Reporter has a preview clip of the new season.

– Pre-season research is indicating that CBS’ NCIS spin-off NCIS: Los Angeles and The Jay Leno Show could be among the big breakout hits of the fall . – It’s not a return to Deadwood, but Timothy Olyphant will be playing a marshal again, this time in FX’s new drama Lawman . Olyphant will play Raylan Givens, an Elmore Leonard character whose retro approach to being a lawman gets him sent to Kentucky to deal with baddies in his hometown. Bonus: The Shield star Walton Goggins (who so deserved an Emmy nod for the last season of that show) will be among Lawman‘s guest stars. – Wonder what you’d look like as a Mad Men character? Would you be a chain-smoking, cocktail-swilling shark of an ad exec, or would you just be drawn that way? Find out at MadMenYourself.com , where you can create your own animated Mad Men-era you. – Degrassi: The Next Generation star Aubrey Graham, who’s better known as red-hot rapper Drake these days, has signed on to co-star with another Degrassi alum, Mazin Elsadig, in a new Canadian sitcom called Us & Them.

– The Bachelor‘s Chris Harrison and Dancing with the Stars‘ Carrie Ann Inaba have signed a deal to become the new hosts of the TV Guide Channel’s awards show red carpet coverage, beginning with the Emmys on Sept. 20. – Emmy nominee Sarah Silverman, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen and the Manning brothers will be among the voice guest stars on the 21st season of The Simpsons, which debuts Sept. 27 on Fox. – USA Today has a fun profile of Hoboken Buddy Valastro, who, thanks to TLC’s addictive Cake Boss, has joined Ace of Cakes‘ Duff Goldman as a rock star cake baker. Posted July 6th, 2009 by Kim All the tube news that’s fit to surf … – No worries if you’re not in Los Angeles or don’t have a ticket to the Michael Jackson memorial at Staples Center on Tuesday: Networks planning live coverage of the event at 1PM ET include: ABC, NBC, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, E! Entertainment and TV Guide Network.

– In case you thought everyone is feeling nostalgic about Michael Jackson and tuning in for every bit of MJ coverage, think again: New York congressman Peter King unleashed a YouTube rant about the rampant media coverage of the music star’s death this weekend. – The New York Times says that instead of adapting to The Tonight Show‘s older audience, newbie host Conan O’Brien has drawn a younger audience to the show – his viewer age has dropped from 55 to 45 in just a month. – Also in the Times: a profile of Buddy Valastro , better known as the star of TLC’s great summer series Cake Boss (Mondays, 10PM ET). – Let’s hope William Shatner has some part in this boob tube-to-big screen makeover : A comedy movie take on 1982-86 ABC cop series T.J. Hooker. – After her surprise weekend resignation, will Sarah Palin become a Fox News show host ? – Just as the networks seem (inexplicably) committed to putting Hilary Duff on TV on a regular basis, they also seem determined to make us watch (also inexplicably) watch Bruce Willis/Demi Moore offspring Rumer Willis.

After guest gigs on Medium, CSI: NY and Army Wives, the celeb spawn has signed on for at least one episode of 90210 , where she’ll play a lesbian character named Gia. – Who’s having a great summer? USA Network , with returning hit Burn Notice and new hit dramedy Royal Pains, is on track to have the best summer ratings ever for a cable network . – There’s a Saturday Night Live reunion happening on the big-screen comedy Grown Ups , which stars Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Tim Meadows, Maya Rudolph, Rob Schneider, David Spade, Norm MacDonald, Tim Herlihy and Colin Quinn in the story of a 30th-year class reunion. Sounds like a potentially good flick, but seeing that line-up together in a comedy really makes you miss Chris Farley, no? – And tonight in primetime: – On The Secret Life of an American Teenager (8PM, ABC Family), Amy and Ricky have have a major fight – Is it all over for Wes on The Bachelorette (9PM, ABC)?

The network promises a very dramatic rose ceremony … – Can Brenda smooth over relations between the LAPD and some of the city’s gangsters on The Closer (9PM, TNT)? – Alanis Morissette guests as Nancy’s gynecologist on a new Weeds (10PM, Showtime) – Buddy bakes a Sweet 16 confection on Cake Boss (10PM, TLC) – It’s Disco Week on Dance Your Ass Off (10PM, Oxygen) and somebody appears to have a major meltdown – Kathy decides to write a celeb tell-all on Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (10PM, Bravo) – Zoey dines with Dr. O’Hara and Jackie breaks (more) rules to help a little girl with a very sick mom on Nurse Jackie (10:30PM, Showtime)

Question: On TV, “Ace” Duff Goldman and “Boss” Buddy Valastro both work in what medium?
Answer: Cake